Seven-year-old footage falsely shared as Sheikh Hasina’s birthday celebration in Delhi
A video has been circulating on Facebook with the claim that Sheikh Hasina’s birthday was celebrated in Delhi. However, a Dismislab fact-check found that the video is seven years old. It shows Sheikh Hasina’s birthday celebration at Bangladesh’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, United States, on September 29, 2019.
On September 29, a 20-second video was posted from the verified Facebook profile of actor Shadhin Khasru. The post said, “Sheikh Hasina’s birthday celebrated in Delhi!” Text inside the video read, “Sheikh Hasina’s 79th birthday celebrated in Delhi. Special message to the Awami League! Hasina returning in December.”
The video shows Sheikh Hasina cutting a cake with children. People visible in the video can be heard saying, “Happy birthday to you.” Until the publication of this report, the video had been viewed 99,000 times and shared about 150 times.
Using keyframes from the video for a reverse search, Dismislab found a video published on the Facebook page of former Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury on September 30, 2019. The title read, “With children on her birthday…Bangabandhu’s daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. September 29, 2019 – New York, Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the United Nations.” The scenes at the beginning of that video exactly match those in the circulating video. However, the scenes in the circulating video have been mirrored.
Dismislab also found a report published in the online edition of Shampratik Deshkal on September 30, 2019, titled “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s New York visit in pictures.” The report said that then prime minister Sheikh Hasina cut her birthday cake with children on September 29 at Bangladesh’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, United States. The prime minister’s 73rd birthday was on September 28.
In other words, a video of Sheikh Hasina’s birthday celebration in 2019 is being circulated with a recent claim.
All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.
